Sylmar And Delta Will Battle in The Beldame

It’s shaping up to be a classic case of youth versus experience on Saturday at Belmont Park in the $400,000 Grade I Beldame Stakes for fillies and mares going 1 1/8 miles on the dirt. The focal point of the race will likely be a battle between Princess of Sylmar, the front runner for this year’s title of top American three-year-old filly, and Royal Delta, the five-year-old winner of the last two Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic races. The race is the first of six ‘Win and You’re In’ races for entry to the 2013 Breeders’ Cup on the Belmont card.

Young filly on three-race winning streak

Princess of Sylmar, a Pennsylvania-bred daughter of Majestic Warrior, essentially has come out of nowhere to stake her claim as the best young female runner in the country. After breaking her maiden last year with a 19-length score second time out at Penn National, she has gone on to win seven-of-eight, including her last three straight, the Kentucky Oaks, the Coaching Club American Oaks and the Alabama, all Grade I events. The only time she failed to find the winner’s circle in the last year was a second-place finish in the Grade II Gazelle, her first try in graded-stakes company.

Royal Delta the one to beat every time out

Royal Delta, meanwhile, won at her very first graded-stakes try back in 2011 when she took the Grade II Black-Eyed Susan, and since then she’s won six Grade I races, including both the 2011 and 2012 versions of the Ladies Classic. She’s been first or second in 13 of her last 15 races, and both times she failed to win or place was when she shipped to Dubai to challenge for the Dubai World Cup against males. Otherwise, she’s been all but unbeatable on home soil, winning at Saratoga, Belmont, Delaware, Santa Anita and Gulfstream, on her way to putting more than $4.5 million in the bank.